KAALtv.com

Tunisia renews state of emergency amid terror fear

Updated at: 01/31/2013 1:07 PM
By:

(AP) TUNIS, Tunisia - Tunisia has announced the renewal for another month of the North African country’s state of emergency citing armed clashes with militant groups on the borders and internal unrest.

The state of emergency has been in place since the overthrow of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 following a popular uprising. The country has been wracked by internal unrest since.

The new extension comes in the wake of a terrorist attack on an Algerian gas complex two weeks ago just a few hundred miles south of Tunisia’s borders.

Suspected Islamic extremists have also set fire to more than 40 saints’ tombs, which are considered heretical by conservatives.

Prior to Thursday’s announcement, the state said it was reinforcing security at oil installations in the south.